Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 3/8/09
We had great weather this week.
Followers of this report may remember I had a show and tell last Saturday. Saturday evening right about dark one of the participants (named Rick) called me. He was at that moment sitting in his boat, surrounded by a school of tailing fish, didn't know what they were or how to catch one. He wanted me to join him so I could help him. It wasn't happening but I was certainly intrigued.
Tuesday morning I went to the coordinates specified and there was Rick with his dog. The fish were there and they were black drum- lots of them. I Wanged out the boat and waded to them, tossing a black redfish worm with a seven weight. I got five fish and missed two strikes in a little less than three hours. All the fish were about ten pounds.
Wednesday afternoon son Maxx and I went there. The fish were still there. We got out of the boat and waded over to them, redfish worms tethered to our leaders. I got one, then Maxx got one, then the fish all headed off the flat and disappeared. It was the damndest thing. We went from surrounded by fish to none in about three minutes. We packed it up and went home.
The next morning I was there again, this time with Rodney Smith. We pulled on waders, tied on redfish worms, and went after them. We fished them for over four hours, getting hookup after hookup until some nitwit in a skiff used his trolling motor to run them off. Then we ran off, too.
Friday Bill Gunn joined me for some scouting. We found numerous tailing redfish. There was no wind and they were very skittish, but Bill got one about ten pounds on a little crab pattern. Then I got one about five pounds, and a slot trout too, both on a redfish worm. I just tied eight more- I was running low!
Today I had Dr. Steve Smith and Dr. Lee Roy Dyer, flycasters from Tennessee, join me for a day's fishing. Thank you Chris Myers! We started on the Mosquito Lagoon, on the school of tailing reds that Bill and I had located the previous morning.
We had them to ourselves for a couple hours, then a couple of bait slingers in a johnboat poled right into the middle of them and staked out their boat. Surprisingly they were fairly quiet and we were able to peaceably coexist for about another hour. They got three, we got none. C'est la vie!
Predictably enough the fish eventually stopped tailing. I decided to run to the black drum spot, kind of risky on a Saturday. Sure enough, when we got there two boats were working them. But one saw us and left. I never thought I was that intimidating, and I certainly didn't force the issue.
I poled a little closer. The other boat, a johnboat, was occupied two young guys. I was very impressed with how quietly and patiently they worked the fish. They were gently pushing them our way so I just Wanged out the boat and sure enough the fish came right to us, tailing their little black hearts out.
Steve made a cast too long and the fish turned and went back to the johnboat. They got one. Then they left, too. We had the fishies all to ourselves.
We had so many chances. Lee Roy hooked one, had it on ten minutes, then lost it. Steve had five strikes and missed all of them. We won't mention all the lined fish, although it WAS hard to see because of the clouds. Lee Roy was up again and hooked another, this one on a black Clouser Minnow. When we released the fish it was 303 PM. I poled the boat off the flat and we ran back to Beacon 42. We didn't catch many fish, but it was a great day!
Life is short- GO FISHING!
And life is great and I love my work!
John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
member Florida Outdoor Writers Association (www.fowa.org),
Indian River Guides association (www.irga.org)
